About

The Gothic Imagination is based at the University of Stirling, Scotland and provides an interdisciplinary forum for lively discussion and critical debate concerning all manifestations of the Gothic mode. Queries to Dr Timothy Jones on timothy.jones@stir.ac.uk.

2013 March

Edwards, Justin and Rune Graulund. Grotesque (New Critical Idiom). Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2013.
With preoccupations with the body—body horror, the abject, disability studies, medical themes, etc—prevalent within the contemporary Gothic and Gothic studies as a whole, it is little surprise that one of Routledge’s upcoming New Critical Idiom books is devoted to the grotesque. This volume by Justin Edwards and Rune Graulund highlights the importance and potential of locating the power of bodies (and the literature that features them) in the vehicle of the grotesque and its many ma

Lorna Jowett and Stacey Abbott, TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2013)
Catherine Johnson, in her seminal Telefantasy (2005), argued that ‘the disruption of socio-cultural and generic verisimilitude implied in the representation of the fantastic […] offer[s] the opportunity to experiment with the formal possibilities of television as a medium’ (p. 147). Jowett and Abbott make a similar point in TV Horror, which aims to make us ‘rethink what we mean by horror within a televisual context’ (p. xiii). Their approach is one

I’ve long been a proud gamer. Ever since the 1980s and my family’s first computer, an Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen monitor, I’ve spent a lot of time growing up (or not) through gaming. Along the way, I’ve somehow also managed to get a doctorate in early modern drama and critical theory but despite that distraction I have also continued my dedication to the videogame. In part owing to the technical applications of Moore’s law (loosely defined as the idea that computer processors will double in complexity every two years) the transformation from the games that defined my initial

Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, Spanish Horror Film (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, cure 2012)
Antonio Lázaro-Reboll’s Spanish Horror Film (2012) has been a long time coming. With only a few chapters and journal articles dedicated to the topic, this book comes to crystallise what is an important and growing academic field. Spanning the last five decades and focusing on important ‘horror overdrive’ periods in the history of Spanish cinema, this volume serves as both an introduction and a scholarly redefinition of the boundaries of the genre within the context of European and Hollywoo

Sheridan Le Fanu and Victorian scholars alike should note that the latest edition of Gothic Press's open access journal Le Fanu Studies is now live. Volume 8 issue 1 features a number of interesting reviews and, along with links to the journal's back catalogue, it can be found here: http://www.lefanustudies.com/.

Sullom Hill by Christopher Kenworthy (2011), Field by Tom Fletcher (2011) and Remains by G.A. Pickin (2011) are just three of the tales that make up the vast collection of short story chapbooks published by the independent Nightjar press (publisher: Nicholas Royle, designer: John Oakley). With minimalist, artistic book covers exhibiting pictures of desolate and dark landscapes the short stories in this selection immediately possess an air of mystery and intrigue.
Each of the three stories I read immediately gripped me as a reader and produced shivers down my spine. Each presented an inti

I believe my love of the gothic began in Alvah. My childhood home in the middle of the Aberdeenshire countryside. We lived in an old school house called Linhead, that sat next to the derelict School. I even remember the night my parents and I went to view the house. A small old lady answered the door, then took us through a dimly lit hallway into the living room. The place seemed so big and dark and as I sat next to the roaring coal fire, casually listening to the lady talk about the house, I knew there was something special about Alvah.
My two older brothers and I would often play in t

February was a stellar month for horror movies fans. The month of love saw romance outnumbered by its darker cousin and while there are fewer gothic releases in March, one or two of the listed films should be enough to see you through the month.
The Bay
Directed by Barry Levinson (Good Morning, Vietnam, Diner, Sleepers and Rain Man) and written by Michael Wallach, The Bay is a documentary styled ecological horror that sees chaos ensue after the water of a small Maryland town is found to contain a high level of toxicity. This toxicity is a mutant breed of the parasite Cymothoa exigua (t

About

The Gothic Imagination is based at the University of Stirling, Scotland and provides an interdisciplinary forum for lively discussion and critical debate concerning all manifestations of the Gothic mode. Queries to glennis.byron@stir.ac.uk or dale.townshend@stir.ac.uk